Teenager Bea Jones cracked a superb 49 in Monmouth Cricket Club women’s hardball team’s narrow nine-run defeat against Abergavenny at Avenue Road.

Sunday’s match the first hardball women’s fixture between the two clubs and it was a wonderful advert for the sport.

In reply to Abergavenny’s 148-3 from 30 overs, Jones led Monmouth’s charge and missed out on a deserved half-century when she was run-out off the last ball of an historic match.

Mai Harris (11) also chipped in with runs for Monmouth, sponsored by Latorre Consultancy, as the visitors closed on a battling 139-6 from 30 overs.

Maria Sheehan (2-19) and Nancy Hefferan (2-16) took the bowling plaudits for Abergavenny.

Nadia Mackey was Monmouth’s most successful bowler, snapping up 3-18 from six overs, and was backed up by captain Lauren Maguire (0-11 off six) and Dannie Stone (0-19 off five).

Marta Fernandez, Harris, and Penny Boyle also delivered tidy bowling spells for Monmouth.

Ellie Potter-Irwin and Jill Jones were the excellent in the field, while Stone and Helen McGloin had good stints behind the stumps.

Former Wales player, Rosie Thomas, a Sixth Form student at Monmouth School for Girls, hit 25 (retired, not out) for Abergavenny, while Connie Hefferan made 25 and Bella Collett, 14.